This is the class blog for Eng 1102 at GA Tech called "Fiction, Human Rights, and Social Responsibility." The purpose of this blog is to extend our discussion beyond the classroom and to become aware of human rights issues that exist in the world today and how technology has played a role in either solving or aggravating them. Blogs will be a paragraph long (250 words) and students will contribute once every three weeks according to class number. Entries must be posted by Friday midnight.

Friday, February 22, 2013

Death Penalty

My blog post is in response to the post by student Jinwon
Pyo.To kill, or not to kill?That is the question.Would executing an individual prove to be of
more overall benefit than permanent imprisonment?There are moral standards to regard, but given
the wide variance of opinion, consideration in that aspect will, for the most
part, be ignored.In order to define “better’
or “worse,” black and white data will be used.

First aspect to study: does the death penalty kill
criminals?Certainly.Are all executed peoples criminals?No.Just as a single person’s ability to judge is never perfect, neither is
an assembly of peers’ judgment always accurate.America has declared several past executions as “wrongful executions” of
innocent peoples.Criminal law bears the
Blackstone’s Formulation, which is the principle of, “better that ten guilty
persons escape than that one innocent suffer.”With this mantra in mind, execution disregards this law by not only
harming, but killing bystanders and sparing criminals without a failsafe method
of determining guilt.

Second aspect to study: what are the benefits of capital
punishment?Financially, none.Holding a person in maximum security for life
is actually cheaper than the expenses placed into finalizing capital
punishment.Does capital punishment
prevent crimes or ward off offenders from killing?There has been no official evidence of decreased
crime rates post-execution, nor do officials deem any correlation to the act.

Perhaps this might tread upon the line of morality, but focusing
on the accused’s position, is death a preferable punishment to life
reformation?Well, firstly, what is a
punishment?It is not the platitude of “an-eye-for-an-eye.”That is, rather, revenge, which many seek as
a comfort for loss from one convicted of a “death deserving” crime.A punishment is the consequence of a negative
action that deters the offender from committing the act again and teaches why
such an action was wrong.Does an
executed individual learn from his or her crime?Does an executed individual receive a
punishment that fits the deed?No.A life cannot be traded for a life.The relatively short time spent in death row
is not a suitable response to what an individual’s wrongful actions.Rather, a lifetime of imprisonment converts the
prisoner’s life into one constantly reflected in the permanence of his or her
crimes.